Until now, the IOC has been – how shall I put this? – less than “concerned” about its gay athletes in Russia. When the Russians banned the 2014 Olympics from having a Pride House for gay athletes, the IOC didn’t say boo. Well, in all fairness, the IOC did say something… pathetic. They issued a statement reiterating their commitment to non-discrimination. Yeah, thanks. And how exactly is that going to force the Russians to reopen the Pride House?

It’s not.

And the IOC expressing “concern” is going to doing a thing to stop Russian leader Vladimir Putin from demonizing gay and trans people in an effort to shore up his failed nation-state.

IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau, asked about the appeals, noted that the Olympic Charter “clearly states that any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”

But as we’ve learned before, such statements are meaningless if the IOC refuses to enforce them.

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.

I am so pissed at Russia, been signing petitions to stop the games from being there. I will not watch them next winter. I think the Anti-gay law that Russia passed is soooooooo stupid. That I no longer want to travel there, because the people are being so stupid (not all of them). I am not gay, try to find petitions to stop the games and don’t watch it if you do not agree with Russia

I haven’t watched the Olympics since I was a kid, except for a few minutes while channel surfing if I can’t sleep. There is always something more edifying on, and if I cannot find anything, i just read a book….

if not nations then athletes might get involved, i’m betting there are athletes that might get together and mobilize and boycott as a group since some of their friends are affected by this barbaric policy, if we aren’t part of a solution we are part of the problem.
in america we only seem to get involved when it is a fad or no real sacrifice is made, a boycott with no pain is no boycott at all.

Are “teh gay” the new “Juden”? Remember what happened before and after the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Things got cleaned up, hate speech was removed and Jews — for a while — had a relaxed atmosphere, I think. Then afterwards, things ramped up to of course Kristalnacht.

So, if the Russians say, “oh, we’ll be nice to the gay people”, don’t believe it. And afterwards, if you are foreign and even Queer, much less LGBT, don’t stick around. And to my Russian Federeration LGBTIQ brothers and sisters, “be careful” and/or try to get out.

I remember the 1980 Olympic games boycott — oddly enough, it was over the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan, a war into which they poured hundreds of billions of rubles to no useful effect.

Sadly, the boycott achieved nothing good whatsoever. The IOC hasn’t changed its habit of picking authoritarian host countries. The Soviet Union didn’t give a damn. All that happened was those athletes lost their chance to compete in the games.

Well, like so many other repressive regimes, they will ignore what it profits them to ignore and it will pursue what it profits them to pursue. Just like the military used to ignore your sexual orientation when it needed you as cannon fodder — and then toss your ass out when they didn’t need you any more.

I just checked my passport which has an emergency contact section including a place for “relationship”. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to fill in “husband” if you’re planning to visit Russia or Qatar for the FIFA World Cup…

You men they should do something that might cost them and their sponsors a few dollars? Perish the thought! Oh, wait–the Olympics are all about peace and brotherhood and like that. Forget I said anything that might suggest otherwise.

Here’s the problem: The people at risk of being arrested are the athletes, their trainers, and the support staff.

The members of the IOC will never be at risk themselves, and their motive is money. They don’t and won’t care unless there’s some horrifically awful PR incident, such as a gay athlete being beaten to death while in Russia.

would a country of conscience have the backbone to boycott the olympics in protest to this russian policy, the ioc should at least tell nations with similar policies not to bid anymore but when money is involved ethics & morality leave the discussion very quickly.

Interestingly, Chancellor Hitler gave Jesse Owens his gold medal even though Jesse, an American Indian, outran the . . . what did they call themselves? . . . the Master Race. Seems odd that the Russians are planning to out-bigot somebody like Hitler.

Isn’t it great how different sorts of authoritarian regimes converge on homo-hating? I’m not exactly sure how homosexual citizens are supposed to be a menace to the state but there you are. I suppose that the increasingly unpopular Putin is seeking to shore up his power base by appealing to conservative Orthodox voters.

The Olympics, just like the World Cup or the Superbowl, is a business first-and-foremost. The committee hides behind the veil of nationalism and unity, but I’ve no doubt that they would choose to hold the games in Saudi Arabia with the women swimmers having to wear full-length burkas if it lined the committee’s own pockets.

I guess it’s going to take a high-profile arrest or some incident of violence big enough to hit the international news — “Olympic arrested and beaten by Russian police” — before they realize there are some nations where they can’t have their games. Not if they want to claim to stand for the ideals of non-discrimination.

I mean, what’s next? Games in Saudi Arabia where the female athletes are required to compete while wearing burkas?